Mad Men Season 5: Finale

"This is what happens when you have the artistic temperament but you are not an artist."


Beautiful nuance.  Devastating sentence.  More beautiful and more devastating when delivered, as it was, with a French accent.

Mad Men Season 5: Episode 11

For the last few episodes, I had been regretting my observation about how closely Mad Men was approximating the pace of life. Except for a number of unpleasant undercurrents, I didn’t feel as if much of anything was happening, which is okay for life itself, but doesn’t necessarily work well for a drama trying to be lifelike…. but all of that was blown away by Episode 11.

I’m in love with time twists. The one at the heart of this episode killed.

Each Sunday night, I watch Game of Thrones followed by Mad Men.

Game of Thrones is about another era, much more primitive. Incredible power struggles preoccupy everyone; when you conquer your enemy, you display his head on a stick for all to see.

Women have their designated station. They survive by wisely using the gifts nature has afforded them, or in some heroic instances, they strive against type and achieve fleeting rewards.

It's because we've become so civilized that the storylines are so different.

Mad Men: Season 5: Episode 8

Megan’s father’s physical similarity to Jean-Paul Sartre can’t be accidental, considering the positions he espouses. Don calls him a Marxist, or a Maoist or something. He comes very close to expressing what Sartre calls “bad faith’ when he voices disappointment in Megan’s lifestyle and line of work, saying they are bad for her soul. Of course he doesn’t have the famous philosopher’s recognition, which summarizes his own dilemma. Even though he is not in Episode 8, the spirit of his words is everywhere, as Megan quits the office and members of the staff at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce begin to question the significance of what they do, even Don.

Mad Man: Season 5: Episode 7

The writing in this episode of Mad Men is worthy of Chekhov. The final, heart-breaking scene where the characters sit staring in different directions encased in their own reflections, stunned into solitude, is layered with so many carefully articulated subtexts that the Russian master has to be behind the scenes pulling the strings.

I thought the lyricism of last week’s ending could not be topped, but clearly it has.